[Bug 35287] ESD Playback Fails Silently on 1st login

[BHowell]

Public bug report changed:
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/35287

Comment:
So ESD has been killed so I know it's not blocking access to the
soundcard.

Playing in Xmms using OSS or Alsa output produces the error "Couldn't
open audio".  Something else is hogging the soundcard.

Maybe some process in gnome is blocking access to the sound card?  This
would also cause problems with ESD right?  How can I find out which
process has locked the sound card 'lsof'?